Trump Says Massive Oil and Mineral Exploration Will Begin in Greenland

President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday that large-scale oil, gas and mineral exploration was about to begin in Greenland, a claim that went well beyond the terms of the security agreement his administration signed with Denmark and Greenland last month.

“Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday, without saying who would carry it out or when. He said experts believe the island holds far more easily accessible oil than almost anywhere else in the world, and argued that Greenland is vital to American defense because any future attack on the United States would have to cross it. The post followed a campaign stop in Alaska on Tuesday for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark. The agreement signed in New York on Sept. 22 gives the United States broad access to the island’s territory and airspace and focuses mainly on military use. It allows an expansion of Pituffik Space Base, the American early-warning installation in the island’s far north, and opens the way to additional bases at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig. It has no expiration date, bars countries outside NATO from setting up bases without the parties’ agreement and limits investment by non-NATO countries in strategic sectors. It would remain in force if Greenland chose independence.

The pact refers to resource extraction and minerals cooperation, but without specifics, and it grants the United States no special rights to explore. NBC News reported that representatives of the Danish and Greenlandic leaders did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday.

Greenland’s resources have tempted outsiders for decades without much to show for it. The harsh climate, a lack of roads, ports and power, and difficult geology have stalled development, and past efforts to extract rare earth minerals, oil and gas never advanced beyond exploration. The United States Geological Survey has identified potentially large offshore oil and gas deposits, but drilling under Arctic ice could be prohibitively hard, and the island’s rare earths are locked in hard rock. Some industry experts say the costs have not made economic sense for private companies until now.

The administration’s strongest argument is strategic. China dominates the world’s supply of rare earth minerals used in electronics and weapons, and Greenland holds large deposits; developing them with allies could reduce that dependence. But the security agreement was meant to calm months of tension with NATO allies over Trump’s demands to control the territory, and describing the island as “our new” Greenland does not change that it remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Trump has sought greater control over Greenland since his first term and has floated buying it or taking it by force. The American military presence there has shrunk from thousands of troops at 17 sites after World War II to roughly 200 at Pituffik.